Handsome Furs

Like Bruce Dickinson flying biplanes or Johnny Borrell cruising city streets on a Harley, some people’s idea of fun is often worrying. Here, Dan Boeckner – one fifth of exquisitely morose Canadian noise-makers Wolf Parade – pays homage to the inhabitants of Helsinki, Finland, who annually get twatted on home-brew, stagger to the park and dance en masse atop the graves of 17th-Century plague victims (not dissimilar to Creamfields, then). Unsurprisingly, Win Butler – for one – loves it. And there’s a lot to love. The folky gloom-tronica of ‘What We Had’ thumping like the heart of The Postal Service trapped inside a metallic pencil-case and the anguished chorusing of bedridden souls on ‘Hearts Of Iron,’ especially, make a trip to the dark side near impossible to resist.

Greg Cochrane

7 out of 10